Tai Po fire survivors mourn heroine who alerted neighbours to flames

Survivors of Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades have mourned a woman who heroically knocked on neighbours’ doors to alert them to the flames but died in the tragedy, after fire alarms at Wang Fuk Court failed to go off.Pak Shui-lin’s husband, Sdanni Yip Ka-kui, and neighbour Lam Yin-ming, both Wang Tai House residents, praised the heroine for her kindness, but said that “she did not deserve to suffer such a fate”.They made the remarks on Monday as they testified at the fifth session of an evidential hearing held by a judge-led independent committee to investigate the cause of the fire.The pair said Pak had knocked on doors on her floor to alert them to evacuate, saving many lives, but later died during the blaze.“I would say her move to knock on the doors is a natural one,” Yip told the committee. “It is a simple move that everyone would do.”The fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po on November 26, engulfing seven of the estate’s eight blocks and raging for about 43 hours. The blaze killed 168 people and displaced nearly 5,000 residents.